Hi, my name is Christine and I am a scrap-aholic. "HI CHRISTINE" ;-) I am also a Disney-aholic. I love Disneyland, I love scrapbooking, put the two together and you get a project that has taken 5 months and COUNTLESS $ (SHHHHH, DH thinks I get all this stuff from the dollar store :-D)

I have finally finished scrapbooking our last trip to Disneyland, in Feb 2007. I take A LOT of pictures and had A LOT to scrap. I would have a lot more but my media card was full and I had no where to unload it :-D I won't bore you with a big ol long story, unless you WANT one! Anyway, I guess I'll let the pages speak for themselves. You can click on them for a bigger view. They are in order, I wish I could put them up here in layout order, but oh well, you get the idea . . . lemme know whatcha think!

I LOVE PROGRESS! Saturday we decided to be quite productive so after dragging 4 kids through 3 grocery stores and getting lunch we came home and decided to pack up a load to take to our new storage! That's a lot to get done before 2:00 in the afternoon on a Saturday :-D So we did just that, came home and got to work! DH started getting out the holiday stuff and stuff on our porch we didn't need and packing it into the truck, while I packed up stuff in the kids' rooms (more on this feat of impossibility on the next Works for Me Wednesday!). After we were packed up we got on our way. We first went to storage to unload, then on to the house!



This is what our house looks like on the outside now as you drive up from the main street! She is mostly painted and stucco'd (?) and looks so pretty! We have grass and only need the rest of our landscaping to be done. DH told me that our cabinets were in and the tile had been done on the counters so I was ITCHING to get in and take a look, so after jimming the temp-lock with a Safeway card we were in!

After we were all done running through the house declaring territories, we went out on the walking trail. I was SO excited cause I saw 3 (THREE) NORMAL looking chicks out there too! I was all "Look Babe! PEOPLE! And they look . . . normal!" Which, for us, is not the case walking through our 'hood!

I love this trail, have I mentioned that before? :-D The kids do too, they run like crazy people through there! We either play "Red Light, Green Light" or I just give em a nice round number of light polls they are allowed to go ahead of us, like 10 ;-)

We all enjoy that ;-) Towards the end, B comes up to me, holds my hand and says she's gonna walk with me. She asks if she can tell them how many lights to run ahead (cause they usually make like a bread truck and HAUL BUNS) and I asked her how many she thought, she said "10!" I asked "Why so many, they'll be so far away?" To which she replys "I know, that way I have you all to myself longer." - AWWWWWWWWW and how slick! ;-) Nice job lil B.



Ah, the end of the trail. I guess all that running just wore them out . . . nice job lil Mama ;-)


After all that we went to our new fav lil spot for dinner, and we had a great time. Then the melt downs from sheer exhaustion started, and before the kids got upset too we left for home ;-) We got a lot done that day though, and it felt good.


I have been feeling a little, out of place, lately. Like I just don't belong HERE at this place, in THIS lifestyle. And I don't even think I realized it until I knew this new place and new lifestyle were just around the corner. Now it feels like every day that I am here is another day that I just don't feel right. That is part of the reason for my SMART Habits Saturdays, I wanted to start doing SOMETHING that made me feel like I was on the right track. That I am working toward my new life being what I WANT it to be, instead of just WAITING for it to get here, being stagnant. I just hate that feeling. Plus the waiting is getting unbearable! I also know that there is so much work, real WORK, to be done to this place as well as the new one before we can begin this new life. I am really not looking forward to that. I just don't think I was really thinking about what that would entail! The lawn is dead because there are no sprinklers and I am too busy to water it by hand (THERE IS A HUGE AMOUNT OF AREA), it's an old house so there are A LOT of little things that will need to be fixed before we move too. I forgot to mention that we are AGAIN without AIR CONDITIONING. It is supposed to be 106 on Thursday. We are using a swamp cooler, which in some other language actually means "tool of the devil" or "ruins furniture" or "sauna". It feels like I just walked outside in Florida, no I haven't ACTUALLY walked outside in Florida, but I am SURE this is what it feels like. It's just awful, it REALLY REALLY is. I SUPPOSE it's better than 106, but I just know it's ruining my furniture so that sucks.


Anyway, I don't want to end this fun little up beat post on a down note, so . . . go back and read the top again ;-) That's all for today!

TNT!

Rocks In My Dryer has issued a random question MEME to all of her readers and I thought "Well, I am SUPER busy getting ready for Mad's Birthday Party, I should be paying bills, and I wasn't going to blog today, but SURE! I'm positively MADE of time!" So let's jump right in ya'll!

1. If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?

• Hmmmm, cheesecake! Cheesecake is a little bit of heaven I think. OH, it's a tie though with brownie batter - THAT is heaven! I sometimes make brownies JUST for the batter and have to make them in a smaller pan than it calls for because I eat most of the mix *blushes :-D

2. What's the most nerve-racking "close call" you've ever had?

• When I totaled my Dodge Neon. I say "close call" because it could have been A LOT worse. I didn't have any of my kids with me, I was only going 30mph (YES, you CAN total a car at 30mph - probably ONLY a Neon though) and now I ALWAYS wear my seat belt, mostly always, almost :-D I did hit my head though and so now whenever my poor honey is driving and we come up to tail lights I COMPLETELY involuntarily scream out "WATCH OUT! AAAAAHHHHH WE'RE GONNA DIE!!!!!" well, I do scream watch out but the rest is in my head, I attribute that to the head injury that I never reported because I was afraid my insurance would go up :-D That, and sometimes and I even throw my body back and grab at the ceiling while screaming and scare the CRAP out of him, hehe - kinda funny . . . now anyway :-D

3. Name five features your ultimate dream house would have(features that Rockwell Manor does NOT have)...

1. An automatic laundry folder/putter awayer, well, besides my poor chore ridden kids...
2. A HUGE backyard that was perfectly manicured and had a pool! and a spa! and a playground! and friends! and a pony! Oh wait...yeah, ponies poop and I got enough of THAT to clean up...
3. A movie room! I see those in model homes now-a-days and they look so cool! I could just see us watchin movies in there together as a family, with popcorn and candy and it would be marvelous - or so the model home people want you to think - without reminding you that you would have to watch 'family friendly' movies instead of porn, even soft porn, so I guess I would want TWO movie rooms! j/k! . . . mostly ;-)
4. A big ol' kitchen with a breakfast nook and a bar and an island and room for a big ass dinning table and a cook!
5. A master bedroom retreat! I saw one of these in a model home too and it was AWESOME. It had just a sofa and table but was right in front of a see-through fire place that went into the master - it was beautiful. I imagined sitting there with DH, reading or talking, a glass of wine, perhaps a movie ;-) - and being far enough away from the kids wing of the house that we don't have to ignore the fighting, we can't even HEAR IT! AHHHHHHHHH...heaven.....

4. Who has been the most influential non-relative in your life?

• Ok, it sounds lame, but there was this radio show I listen to in the morning that helped me more than I can even explain. Yeah, it sounds lame to me too. I was going through a VERY tough time with my divorce and this show helped. Not just with the laughter, but the people on there made me think about things I had never thought about before. I got married at 18 the first time, had my first child at 19, so I never took the time to figure out who I was or what I wanted out of life or a husband. They talked about EVERYTHING under the sun, mostly relationships. They made me think about how I felt about everything, things I never even thought to think about! I started thinking about what I wanted out of life; what my passions, good and bad, were; what kind of a man would I want to share my life with; what kind of example to I want to set for my children. Things I had not thought to think at the age of 18. And it actually made me excited! I was excited about learning who I was! I started thinking that even at my age (24 at the time) and with two kids, I could be WHOEVER i wanted to be! I had this power, this power to do whatever I wanted with my life. I can't explain it. It made me see the world in a totally different way. I just came to realize how by taking personal responsiblity for myself and the things that go on around me and how I *chose to deal with them, I could do anything. And then, I met a man who felt the same way and understood EVERYTHING that I just wrote about, and coincidentally, he was a fan of the show ;-) - WOW I bet you still have NO IDEA what that paragraph was about :-D

5. What one non-physical feature would you most like to change about yourself?

• I would LOVE to have more patience with children. Not just my own either, I think the children of the world would benefit IMMENSELY if I had more patience with children :-D

OK! So, there ya go! I guess now I come up with 5 questions of my own...oh the pressure...of questions...FIVE of them...

1. If could fix one mistake in your past, what would it be?
2. If you could do ANYTHING as a career and make great money doing it, what would it be?
3. If you could re-name your kids, what are your dream kid-names? And don't answer some mamby-pamby 'oh-i-love-my-kids-names-cause-they-wouldn't-be-my-kids-if-they-had-different-names' stop.it. Yes they would so just be honest here ;-)
4. What is your favorite guilty pleasure?
5. Do you like my blog? No, seriously - I have issues - do you? And if you do, would you read more if I blogged more? Like posted more often? And if you read more, what would make you comment? Cause I KNOW there are more than just two of ya readin! NOTE: top right hand corner - 'Number of Lurkers'? - comment already! :-D much love!

Ok, so go MEME already and if you do, please leave me a comment and lemme know cause I wanna see if you like me, if you REALLY like me :-D (yeah, remember the issues I mentioned...)

TNT!

ALWAYS into SOMETHING. That about sums her up. My last two year old, my little Mad. Today is her birthday. I'll have many photos of her party up Friday night or Saturday since we're having the party Friday when all the kids are home. It can be a struggle getting everything to coinside with when we have all our kids (due to co-parenting scheduling issues) but THAT is vent for another day! Today you will be regailed with stories of mayhem and madness aka - pregnancy and birth! YAY! w00t even! It's ok if you choose to leave and come again another day when the topic of discussion is not my neather regions - I'm right behind ya :-D But for now...




This was my cute preggie ass! I actually looked better and gained less weight with this pregnancy that my other two! I was just as uncomfortable though! It was so bad man. Plus I was TERRIFIED of having an even bigger baby than my last, which is USUALLY the case! I was just SURE I was in for a 9+ pounder and I was just NOT havin that! For WEEKS leading up to the end, I talked to my doc and warned him about my past baby-hugeness and that I would like to try and avoid it this time. It seemed like EVERY time I had an ultrasound though they would push my due date back! I had started out being due the first part of July and then they said something like July 15th! I said "oh no!" so I talked to him, EVERY visit, and he eventually said that it would be better, for all of us (i think he meant him too ;-), if we had the baby at the end of June. So he "monitored" the baby's size and the closer we got he kept saying "7 pounder!" I was like 'YES YES! A LITTLE BABY -w00t!!!' HA!




It's cute when you think doc's ALWAYS know what they're talking about, just cause they DID go to school much longer than you and are in debt up to their eye balls and have more patients than they possibly should be allowed, cute. I was just sure towards the end that she was bigger than that! I kept telling people man the doc was just SURE she was only 7 and that maybe we should push the 'end-game' back into July after all - I think I cried. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I did. Then on my visit on June 26th-ish, I BEGGED him to check me and just to make sure this was a tiny baby since one of my original dates was close anyway. So he did and just what I though "OH . . . Hmmm . . . well I guess she's a lot further down than I thought ("DER!" I THOUGHT! "I'm waddling around like a PREGNANT penguin!") Looks like she IS a big baby - already over 8, maybe closing in on 9(!) When would you like to come in and have the baby, cause I think we should get you in soon." - I cried with joy that time! Well, and a little scared too cause D**M IT! I knew she was big! We also had time conflicts with DHs schedule because he had JUST started a job and couldn't take ANY time off! So I had to go in on a Tuesday so I could have her and stay until he could pick us up on Friday and then I'd have him to help for a COUPLE days at least. We were still not living together at this point as he was working on the house we were moving into and we both only had two bedroom places! Wait, where was I going with all that? Um... birth...Two years ago today, after only 12 hours of labor this time(!)...

Well, that's me in the middle, in all my just-givin-birth HOTNESS! It was a helluva day man. HELLUVA DAY. When I called the hospital to tell them I was due to be induced they said "um no, we're full" - Again, I cried. I called back and hour later, and an hour later, and well yeah. The last time I called, they told me to COME ON IN, but they got me confused with a Christin(A) Garcia and before they could figure out they made a mistake I hung up the phone and we hauled preggie ASS to the hospital. I waited until I was logged in and hooked up before making sure they knew who I was ;-) HEY! At that point...it's every miserable preggie for herself!!!!! I have no guilt :-D Things started out ok, but went downhill quickly, as they tend to do. I was on a oxygen for awhile and they kept having to wake me up cause my hear rate would drop too low, that sucked! I wanted to sleep so badly but then I would stop breathing and all so I guess they don't like that ;-) Then same thing happened as did with my lil B, where I was going NOWHERE slowly (4-5cm) and then all of a sudden we are in full PUSH mode and there is NO ONE anywhere! Then the nurse comes in all "oh whatever, you got hours left girl" and I'm all "CHECK ME BITCH" in that satan like voice ya know, and she does and says "DON'T FREAKIN PUSH!" and I'm all "SCREW YOU LADY! SOMEONE BETTER PLAY CATCHER!" Oh and in the midst of said pushing mayhem they forgot to take off the blood pressure cuff and they were yelling at me to push and keep my mask on and yelling at me to focus and I kept trying to tell them to get that damn cuff of and NO ONE was listening! So I yanked free of everyone, yanked the damn thing OFF and threw it across the room! It only hit ONE of the nurses so I was dissappointed, but she did come over and take off the air mask so I counted it as a success :-D

A few pushes later and here she is! My little Mad. All 8lb 8oz of her! Not bad, not as small as I had hoped, but not as big as the last - so another success!!!!

And she was healthy and the most beautiful baby ever! Well, tied for first with two other little baby girls I know ;-D She was so sweet and pretty and perfect and QUIET in the hospital. HA! Boy was I in for it! She is a handful. By far my toughest endevor. Maybe it's because she is FOR SURE the last one, I don't know, I just know she is as stubborn as her dad and I put together and it takes the strength of us BOTH just to handle her sometimes!

On the other hand, she is a cutie! Already trying to fill mom's shoes ;-p She loves her brothers and sisters SO MUCH. And she can really make us laugh and just want to cuddle and hug her like crazy with just a certain turn of her little attitude. I hope to in time teach her how to turn her stubbornness into a good thing in her life, to use to better her life. I know this age is a tough one and I am doing my BEST to keep the peace and sanity for this family that I know is lying beneath the surface SOMEWHERE deep deep DEEP DOWN below. I can't wait to see how she turns out to be, what and who she becomes. Whether she was a suprise baby or not, she WAS meant to be here and has really brought our family together. We all just love and adore her, even if she makes it really REALLY hard sometimes :-D

SO YAY! They are wed! The wedding was a success as they are husband and wife! w00t! (suckers ;-) Now, my bloggy peeps, this will NOT be a normal post here at the Connection...I have either NO photos, or BAD photos, or kinda lame non-prime-subject photos. I feel bad about that but SO DAMN MANY people were taking pictures that I just didn't throw my hat into the ring. Foolishly believing for some crazy reason (read: ALCOHOL - wait no - read: LACK of ALCOHOL) that all these other people would give me copies of their photos. HA!


It all started June 13th, my Becca's birthday. She flew in from Kennessee the night before and was going to get a van to borrow and come hang out. Things started looking like that wasn't going to happen so I drove out and got her. We got back to my house and had pizza and I made her a lil birthday cake. We did some stuff for the wedding shower and scrapped a little but mostly just hung out and talked and laughed forEVER. GUESS WHAT?! - NO FREAKIN PICS! I DONT KNOW WHY! I suck...


The next day I took her to see my house! We CRAMMED 3 (THREE!) carseats into the back o my tiny civic and made the 45 minute drive. She thought it was cool and agreed with me in that it totaly rules, then we packed those poor kids back into the tiny civic, expecting one door to pop open when the last was closed. And then had the great idea to go to the mall!!!! w00t!!!! We took these poor - HOT - hungry - screamin - tired - whiney 's to the MALL - the kids were out of sorts too ;-) We got something to eat and they did ok, we thought feeding them would be enough of an incentive to keep quiet and in-line - HA! "Just cause you keep us from starvation means NOTHING woman! That's your JOB!" I was just sure I heard Mad say that, though when I asked her she said "fjdkd shjfjdkdk fjkdsljfksl!". We went to only one store. I tried on a few dresses, none of which fit. SHE found all the cute ones I wanted to fit - how's THAT for justice? Then after all three simultaneiously having screaming fits and getting dirty looks from all the skinny childless people, we left. PICS YOU ASK - NOPE! FORGOT AGAIN! I think she has some, but that does me no good right now ;-)


We went home and put the kids to bed, eventually. Then DH came home and before my kiss on his lips was dry we were out the door and runnin! We had MUCH shopping for this shower to do! And since the day was still fresh in our minds, we decided to have a much needed drink FIRST. And since it was my mom's birthday, I called her up and had her meet us down at the BEST PLACE for a Mangotini - Applebees. We hung out and swapped some stories, begrudging limited ourselves to only ONE drink, then left for more shopping. We weren't really even tipsy, but it was still funny as CRAP to tease Becca every time she ran the cart into stuff - which was a lot ;-) PHOTOS HERE YOU ASK?! NO.I.AM.LAME...


Friday was Lil B's Birthday Celebratory dinner - click there for proof that I DO still own a camera. Then Saturday was the shower. The day started at 7:30 AM - when I had to take poor R to the dentist :-( I have a totally irrational fear of the dentist, I admit it. And as I had suspected, it totally transfers to being scared for my kid too. After that I basically ran around for the rest of day, taking either one or two kids, through about 20 stores. FUN. Then I headed out to the shower place for set up. Everything basically went off without a hitch! It was the funnest bridal shower I have ever been to! Thanks mostly to me :-D oh and Rebecca - and that fact that we are FUNNY BITCHES! ;-) Rachelle is pretty shy and on the conservative side (thats putting it mildly ;-) and so to thoroughly embarrass her we started the evening with the only game we had "Count the Condoms!" We filled a pretty vase full of condoms and took it around the room for people to guess how many was in it! Then we made HER count them - it was soooooo funny OH MAN. In the middle there was a preggie test ;-) I think the count came to 35, so that should hopefully last through the honeymoon ;-) We got a nice assortment of condoms too, ribbed for her pleasure, studded for both pleasure, MINT FLAVORED (ewwww), OH AND extended pleasure climax control (it was afterall, his first time too ;-) The rest of the shower was great. The place looked beautiful! and everyone had a great time, even her! PICS?!?! WHERE ARE YOUR PICS WOMAN?! NOT EVEN ONE?!?!? sigh...stop asking will ya?!


Tuesday we got pedicures (w00t!) and Rebecca hung out and scrapped - that was so fun. Wednesday was the Bridal Tea - that was AWESOME. It was up in the foothills in this beautiful spa area. The food was WONDERFUL and the atmosphere was perfect. I love being around other women! Positive, classy, sweet women - it was just wonderful. Oh and the endless supply of coffee, tea and CHOCOLATE was nice too :-D After that Rebecca and I went and got a coffee and talked for awhile. Then I made my 4th round trip drive in a week totaling 12 HOURS of driving just to them and back! DONT ASK FOR PICS! I HAVE NONE! yet...


Then Friday was the rehersal and I HAVE PICS PEOPLE! Far too many probably :-D back to normal!


The rehersal was funny man. The wedding was at Jake's grandparents ESTATE, and I do NOT use that term loosely. The place was absolutely amazing. Amazing. We were surrounded by weeping willows and 80 acres of vineyards, it was perfect. Except for the wind...MY GOD the wind. I think it might be the windiest place on the planet. Everything was good with exception all the damn POTHOLES I found while walking on the grass in heels. Looked like I had sampled a bit too much from the good ol vineyard! Oh, how I wish ;-) Oh, and then there was the reluctant flower girl...

This was mid-tantrum - it was kinda funny actually...

well, funny to me! As you can see, the bride did not find it so amusing. The flower girl did NOT want to share her daddy going down the aisle, neither did the bride! And much crying did ensue, and hair pulling and throwing of fits! The flower girl was a little upset too ;-) j/k Shell - much love! ;-) Then we went off to the rehersal dinner that was fantastic! The grooms parents treated us to a fine dinner at the Old Post Office - do not let the name sway you, it was much hoitey toitey! But in a good way...I loved it! I didn't get to sit next to Becca, though her influence on me was seen when I took this picture...

It was just too cute! Totally by accident the two chocolates on the table were the wedding colors! Dinner was nice, DH and I took every opportunity to take advantage of a nice dinner sans children. It was a little bit of heaven. It's fun being around a couple totally in love when you are totally in love, it just reminds you of how happy you are and how great you have it! I love weddings for that reason. I kept thinking of how happy I am that I found such a wonderful man to share my life and my family with. And we still act and feel like newlyweds - I hope it always feels that way, I think it will. Back to the pics!

After the rehersal dinner we all went different ways but ended up back at the estate to stay the night before the wedding since it was at 10:00am! As our gifts for being at her mercy, I mean in her wedding, Shell got us all matching PJ's! We took TONS of pictures and laughed and had a great time. Then we slept, not well, but I think there were a few winks gotten. We got up at the butt-crack o dawn to get ready. It took a LONG TIME. Shell was great and got us a girl to help with our hair and since I just on Thursday got the WORST hair cut EVER, I was truly grateful. We were still late though, of course, what wedding starts ON TIME? The answer is NONE. Ok so this is where I regressed and went back to taking like NO photos... THIS is the only shot I got of her getting ready...

Her make up/hair person was f**kin amazing! Rachelled looked flawless, and it stayed that way through the wind and the tears and the joy and the fears - or whatever - hair and make up stayed put and perfect throughout the whole day, she truly looked like a princess.

The wedding was great. The ceremony was great and after waiting for pictures that didn't get taken, we went into the reception. It was so beautifully decorated and we got to jump right in and get our food first cause we had more pics to take. So we sat for a bit and talked and then RAN outside to take more pics, after they found the bride, groom and pic lady of course. Then we hurriedly took some pics and were put on notice that after the toast and dances there were MORE pics to take! So we RAN inside for that stuff and it was good. Then we RAN back for the rest of the pics to find that one of the bridesmaids was MIA! We were supposed to be taking the FORMAL shots! After we were able to rangle her and threaten her with all kinds of mayhem, she put back on the dress and got back in line. Only to find that two of us four no longer had our bouquets, and so the other two couldn't use their's! D**M! S**T! F**K! I was using that to hind all KINDS of wrongness! From my pointy-boob seem problems to tummy-bulge yumminess - I NEEDED THAT BOUQUET! But I let it go after only a little begging and pleading, whatever ;-)

And then we were done. And it was done. And we left and got a much needed PeachTini from our fav spot the Blue Frog Brewery. We unwound and went home, that is when my sinus head cold really hit. It attempted to hit me started Thursday, but I said NO! You will not hit me until Saturday...afternoon! And BOY did it. That is why there are no pics of the much needed drinking, there was about as much snot as there was alcohol - and thats just not pretty. I do have ONE pic from the wedding itself though! Until I get more and shamelessly and regretlessly force you all to bear witness to them, this is what you get...

I can hear the internet all at once say "AWWWWWWWWWW" :-D TNT!